Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blade member, a method for attaching a blade member, a process cartridge, a method for assembling a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus.
The image forming apparatus may be, for example, an electrophotographic copying machine, a laser beam printer, an LED printer, facsimile system, word processor and the like.
Related Background Art
In image forming apparatus such as copying machines, a latent image is formed by selectively exposing an image bearing member uniformly charged, the latent image is then visualized with toner, and then the toner image is transferred onto a recording sheet, thereby forming an image on the recording sheet. In such image forming apparatus, whenever the toner is used up, new toner must be replenished. The toner replenishing operation not only is troublesome, but also often causes the contamination of the surroundings. Further, since the maintenance of various elements or members cannot be performed only by an expert in the art, most of the users feel inconvenience.
In order to eliminate such drawback and inconvenience, an image forming apparatus wherein parts such as a developing device which toner therein has been used up or an image bearing member which a service life thereof has expired can easily be exchanged, thereby facilitating the maintenance, by assembling the image bearing member, a charger, the developing device and a cleaning device integrally as a process cartridge which can be removably mounted within the image forming apparatus has been proposed and put into practical use, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,985,436, 4,500,195, 4,540,268 and 4,627,701.
By the way, in order to make an image forming apparatus compact, it has recently been required for making a process cartridge and various parts used with such process cartridge small-sized. On the other hand, in order to improve the assembling ability for the process cartridge, it has been requested for facilitating the assembling and disassembling of the parts used with the process cartridge.
This is because recycling of the process cartridges has strongly been desired in order to use the resources effectively from the view point of the protection of the global environment. To this end, it is desired to propose a process cartridge which can be recycled more easily. Incidentally, recycling of the process cartridge means that, after a used process cartridge is collected and then is decomposed, damaged or worn parts are exchanged for new parts and the other parts are reused as they are, thereby re-assembling the process cartridge.
Although the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,436 discloses the collection and recycle of a unit which has been used for a predetermined period, a preferred construction for the recycle is not disclosed concretely (refer to lines 38-62, column 16 in U.S. Pat. No. 3,985,436).